


Stop Staring

by ohnoshefell



Series: Hopeless, Helpless and Completely Happy [1]
Category: A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin, Game of Thrones (TV)
Genre: Alive Starks (ASoIaF), Best Friends, F/M, Family Feels, Family Fluff, Fluff and Humor, Gendrya - Freeform, Happy Starks (ASoIaF), Idiots in Love, Implied Friends To Lovers, Jon Snow Knows Nothing, Jon Snow Knows Something, Sassy Arya Stark, catelyn's not a regular mom, she's a cool mom, they all just love to tease arya
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-23
Updated: 2019-10-23
Packaged: 2020-12-27 10:55:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,809
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21117605
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ohnoshefell/pseuds/ohnoshefell
Summary: Maybe if he had stopped staring at her for five minutes her family probably would have never caught on. Except maybe they would have because every time she'd have him over when they were younger, they'd find some way to make a sly comment about how awfully close they seemed or how he trailed after her like a lost puppy all the time or, her personal favorite, her mother and father were the best of friends when they were kids like they were and things changed after they grew up and look at where it got them.But she didn't need him staring at her like she came down from the sky to fuel her family's teasing and supply them with their overflow of ammunition. No, she really did not need that.All she really needed, in truth, was him.---or---Arya's family slowly catches on, one by one, that her and Gendry might be a little more than friends after all this time.





	Stop Staring

**Author's Note:**

> Can't stop. Won't stop.
> 
> On the bright side, it's just a one-shot. One story at a time :)

Maybe if he had stopped staring at her for five minutes her family probably would have never caught on. Except maybe they would have because every time she'd have him over when they were younger, they'd find some way to make a sly comment about how awfully close they seemed or how he trailed after her like a lost puppy all the time or, _her personal favorite_, her mother and father were the best of friends when they were kids like they were and things changed after they grew up and look at where it got them.

They had been staying at her old family home in Winterfell for the holidays and this was their last night before they would leave after the party finished and start their long journey back to their home in Storm's End.

This was supposed to be a normal family and friends New Year's dinner party where her and Gendry would be as low key as possible and where they would _maybe _tell their family that they've been together for some time now right before they would leave to go home so that they wouldn't have to face all their badgering and excitement for the rest of the night. 

Gendry was significantly screwing up the low key part of their plan with all his heart eyes and small smiles, staring at her like she came down from the sky.

But she didn't need him staring at her like she came down from the sky (not right now at least) to fuel her family's teasing and supply them with their overflow of ammunition. No, she _really_ did not need that.

All she really needed, in truth, was him. It had been that way for a long time and would be that way, she thinks, forever.

She knows he feels the exact same way, he makes that much clear every night before they go to bed and he's making that much clear now while he's looking at her chat with her mother from his spot on the couch with big eyes full of love and admiration and a dazed smile that only she's capable of putting on his face and she thinks a few other people are beginning to notice it too. A few people like her mother, who keeps looking between Arya standing in front of her and Gendry sitting across from her and shooting Arya a secret glance of 'I know what's going on, young lady'. A few people like her father standing by the fireplace, an unreadable expression on his face as he stares at Gendry staring longingly at Arya. A few people like Sansa, Ygritte and Bran, smirking at one another and each taking twenty bucks from a sullen Jon. A few people like Robb and Theon, with equal looks of bewilderment and amusement while they point back and forth between Gendry and Arya. A few people like Rickon who has raised eyebrows and Shireen with an excited smile. 

Their plan was a decent plan turned into an absolute shit plan shot all the way down to seven hells all because he couldn't stop staring.

Gods fucking speed.

* * *

Rickon walks up to Arya, who was currently setting the dining table with silverware in an attempt to distract her family from whatever they thought-or _knew _\- was going on between Gendry and Arya.

"Why does Gendry keep looking at you like that?"

"Like what?" Arya says, determinedly looking at the napkins she was folding onto the plates and not at her little brothers cocky smirk.

"Like how Sansa looks at lemon cakes or how Bran looks at the white oak."

"I really hope beyond hope that Gendry doesn't look at me the way our sister looks at baked goods or how Bran looks at trees." Arya snorts.

"You're not answering the question."

"I have a question of my own for you," Rickon crosses his arms and smirks.

"Go on then."

"Why was Shireen Baratheon sneaking out of our house at four in the morning last night?"

Rickon's eyes widen before he promptly narrows them at Arya.

"Well played, Arya Stark, well played."

Arya smirks triumphantly at him before Robb walks up to them.

"Hey Arya, why does Gendry keep looking at you like that?"

"For the love of Gods!"

* * *

"Did you enjoy your holiday, peanut?" Her father smiles down warmly at her. They were squished into the arm chair by the fireplace together, Arya tiny as ever, tucked into his side.

She smiles back,"Of course I did. I got to see all of you." She gestures around the room, where her family is scattered about.

After avoiding the several efforts of Robb trying to figure out why his old soccer teammate was staring at his baby sister so much and a tight lipped Rickon with secrets of his own while finishing setting the table, Arya had never left her family dining room so fast in her entire life, even faster than when she was twelve trying to hide the pixie haircut her friend Hot Pie's barber Yoren had given her from her mother. 

"Well the night's not over yet."

"It's barely getting started." Arya points out and her father just laughs.

"Exactly my point, peanut," He pauses to look at her and Arya isn't so sure she's ready to answer the look in his eyes,"has Gendry enjoyed his holiday?"

There it was. Arya's gotten pretty good at schooling her features around people whenever she doesn't want them to know something. The only people this skill of hers fails to work on are her mother, father, sometimes when he isn't brooding, Jon, and Gendry. So she doesn't bother hiding the irritation dancing around in her eyes.

Her father only laughs some more at her expense,"Why don't you ask him yourself?"

Her father makes a point of nodding over where Gendry was standing by the staircase, listening to her Uncle Benjen speak and absentmindedly staring at her.

"I would ask him myself if I didn't think he'd be too mesmerized staring at you." Arya rolls her eyes and meets Gendry's. When grey meets blue, he's snapped out of his daze and his eyes widen before he smiles at Ned Stark and then turns to listen to Benjen's story of climbing the northern wall.

Arya only snorts and rolls her eyes before muttering under her breath,"stupid."

Her father stares at her amused,"love does that to you."

Arya's eyes widen before she's looking at her father's soft face,"huh?"

"Love, peanut. Love makes you stupid." He kisses the top of her head before he gets up and walks over to where Theon was not so uncharacteristically scooping guacamole with his pointer finger and Ned, upon reaching him, promptly dumps the rest of the guacamole in the garbage and scolds a wide eyed Theon.

Arya wonders how she's going to get through the rest of tonight if all of her family is so keen on giving her their two cents, Gendry is too love struck to not look at her, and Theon is hellsbent on poisoning every last chip dip with his finger.

She shakes her head,"seven bleeding hells."

* * *

"Has Gendry ever been up here?" Sansa says as Arya exits the bathroom. They were on the second floor of their old childhood home and Arya was abundantly aware of how far away they were from the rest of the festivities.

She gives Sansa a funny look,"You know he has been."

Sansa only smiles,"Yeah. When we were kids and you guys would chase each other around with a soccer ball in the house."

"What's your point?" Arya says flatly.

Sansa rolls her eyes. The only other person who knows how to play with words as good as Arya was Sansa. It was why they butted heads so much growing up until they realized how much they could get away with if they worked together. It's how she knows that Sansa isn't going to be as easy to push away as Robb and Rickon were, who would still find random intervals throughout the night to try and corner her in which Arya would only cast a glance towards Shireen long enough to shut Rickon up and glare hard enough at Robb to make him crack into a fit of laughter before rustling up her hair and walking away.

"You know my point. I don't think there are enough love songs in the world to describe the way Gendry looks at you." Sansa says dreamily.

"And I don't think there are enough locks in the world to keep out my insanely invasive family."Arya shoots back.

Sansa mock gasps,"Why ever would you want to keep us out Arya? Are you hiding something?"

"A dead body, and it's actually about to be two dead bodies if you don't stop pestering me."

"I don't think that's anyway to speak to your future maid of honor."

"You need help." Arya says, walking down the stairs, Sansa following close behind. They reach the bottom of the stairs when Sansa speaks again.

"And you,"She turns Arya to face where Gendry is standing, all the way by the drinks in the back of the room searching around for something until his eyes settle on hers and he smiles,"need to face the music."

* * *

"Are you screwing Gendry?"

"Are you screwing Robb?" 

"Nevermind."

* * *

Her mother enlists her help in taking out the chicken roast and casserole's out of the ovens. She's quick to help, because cooking had always been what they bonded over.

She never liked all the sewing lessons and studies in being a 'proper' girl, but cooking she had always loved. And her mother made the best chicken and casserole and she had been more than happy to learn how to make it when she was younger, causing a light bulb to flicker over Catelyn's head that cooking was what they could spend time with. Cooking would be their bridge into topics that normally wouldn't come up in regular conversation for them.

She loved cooking because she loved Catelyn.

"That's a lot of casserole." She laughs and her mother smiles and nods in agreement.

"Well, with a lot that big in our living room, we need all the food we can get."

"Well yeah, but I think four casseroles is a bit excessive."

Catelyn eyes her for a moment,"Not when some people eat larger portions than others," _fu__cking fuck, _"like Gendry."

Catelyn just stares at Arya, observing her features and trying to gauge her reaction and admiring her for trying her damnedest to not have one, she wouldn't be Arya if she didn't try. 

Arya, who was staring at the cheesy casserole in front of her looks up and meets her mothers eyes,"Yeah, Gendry sure does love to eat."

"I'm sure he does." Catelyn had to muster every last ounce of strength in her to get that out, but it was well worth it because it got her the reaction and the answer she wanted.

"MOTHER!" Arya looks absolutely horrified and Catelyn normally would feel the exact same way if it wasn't so damn funny.

"What?" She says innocently,"I was just agreeing with you."

Arya narrows her eyes,"You know what."

"I truly don't, unless that has some double meaning? But the only real way for it to have double meaning would be if it held some truth. Does it?"

Arya only shakes her head,"You're a thorn in my side."

Catelyn only laughs before grabbing her daughter's hand,"Anything you want to tell me, my love?"

Arya thought she could wait till the end of the night but the gods above seem intent on not letting that happen.

"Gendry and I-"

The door to the kitchen opens, cutting Arya's sentence short and causing both her and her mother to look at who just entered. _Oh fucking hells._

"Sorry didn't mean to interrupt." Gendry smiles warmly at the pair of them and Catelyn only shakes her head and smiles back.

"Nonsense, it's completely alright. We were just going to bring the chicken and the casseroles out." Catelyn answers.

"Thank gods, I'm starving."

"I bet you are." Catelyn mutters earning another horrified look from Arya, while she just laughs and Gendry stands there confused before he wordlessly carries two casseroles out to the dining room and comes back to help carry the rest.

"Thank you Gendry." Catelyn says and he just shakes his head.

"Never a problem." And he sends a secret smile Arya's way that Catelyn does not miss.

* * *

Bran values privacy. He respects it. So it's a total shock when she sits next to him and he looks at her before smiling that big wide smile he always gets when he knows something everyone else doesn't, which usually happens to be everything.

"What time are you leaving tonight?"

Arya ponders on this question. They had just finished dinner close to twenty minutes ago and everybody was dispersed through the house. Robb and Jon chattering away with Gendry and each of them shooting an occasional glance Arya's way. Sansa was with Ygritte, Rickon and Shireen, the former pair smirking Arya's way and the latter smiling shyly at one another. Theon had a tortilla chip in his hand looking for dip somewhere. Her parents were talking to uncle Benjen and uncle Edmure. 

She looks at Gendry once more who's already looking at her and she smiles at him. He smiles back. He always smiles back.

She turns her head, and if it were possible, Bran's shit eating grin was even wider than before. 

She resists the urge of smacking him upside the head and just settles for rolling her eyes,"I'm not sure. Our flight isn't until 4 in the morning so."

"_Our _flight?" He wiggles his eyebrows at her and this time she does smack him upside the head.

"Yes _our _flight. Gendry and I left Storm's End together and we're going to go back together. Stop being weird about it."

"Being weird? I'm not being weird, how am I being weird?"

She narrows her eyes,"Oh you know how. You've all been being weird."

"Mayhaps we'd be a little less weird if you were a bit more honest with us?" He shrugs his shoulders and she laughs. She laughs because how on earth did she actually think her family wouldn't know. Of course they would know, of course they would see it before even they saw it.

Maybe they'd always known that Gendry and Arya would end up as Gendry and Arya eventually as soon as she ran into him while he was playing soccer with her brothers and Theon when they were just kids.

Maybe they'd known when he fixed up a motorbike for her when she was 16, much to Catelyn's distress and Rickon's amusement.

Maybe they'd known when Gendry had come down from Storm's End University during the early start of his summer sessions just to take her to her senior prom.

Maybe they'd known when she moved up to Storm's End to attend university with him and they'd gotten an apartment off campus together.

Or maybe they'd known when he kept staring at her while she greeted everybody when they got there earlier last week before nudging him to greet Jon, who had missed him and who he had missed dearly, or when he kept staring at her like he couldn't quite believe she was real the whole entire night.

"Don't you, like, know everything already or whatever?" Arya tries and fails at acting casual and keeping her voice steady but her eyes are staring at Gendry's and she swears blue is her favorite color because blue had never looked more beautiful than whenever Gendry's eyes were staring at hers, all open and honest and loving.

"I know some things. Not everything. Not nothing. No, that's reserved for Jon."

"What's this I hear about Jon Snow knowing nothing?" Arya had been drowning in her favorite blue eyes, she hadn't even realized Ygritte had been approaching them.

"Do you counter that claim?" Bran smiles and Ygritte grins wickedly.

"Never."

Arya snorts and Ygritte turns to her,"At least your guy knows stuff."

Arya's eyes widen, "_My _guy?" 

Ygritte rolls her eyes,"Yes, your guy. You know, Gendry. Right over-" she turns and points at him,"-there."

Arya turns away from Ygritte and is faced with Bran, shit eating grin still in place,"You know what they say, honesty's the best policy."

"Really? I thought it was 'fuck off you pain in my ass'."

* * *

Jon is her favorite person on planet Earth. He'd always pick her first to be on his team, no matter what they played and even if she was absolute shit at it. He took her for ice cream every Sunday afternoon when they were growing up and he'd always listen to her, no matter how mundane and minuscule her problems seemed. 

He understood her and loved her, scrapes and bruises and short hair and all.

Standing in the dining room, serving herself some red velvet cake, she is met with Jon sitting there, poking at his flan with his fork. He looks up and upon seeing his favorite little troublemaker, his eyes brighten and he smiles big. He pulls out the chair next to him and she gladly sits down.

"How's your night been?"

She studies his features and doesn't see any skilled plot behind his eyes trying to worm out the truth of the evolved nature of her and Gendry's relationship so she answers him.

"Way too busy for a New Years' dinner with you lot. Have they always been this nosy?" She teases and he laughs.

"I'm afraid so. Though I guess it's easy to forget how nosy they are, being all the way in the south in Storm's End. How is Storms End, anyways? Gendry says they have good fries but their beer is absolute shit." 

"That's because Gendry likes lager instead of ale." Arya snorts and she thinks she sees Jon smile a little at that little tidbit of information she gave about Gendry. Something that small would be seemingly insignificant but only the closest of people would care to know. 

"But Storms End's good then, yeah?" Jon's eyes are honest and meaningful and she can only find it in herself to be the same back.

"Absolutely." And she means it. 

Storms End wasn't what she had been expecting when she got into SEU and decided to join her best friend up south. Arya normally prided herself on how well she handles the cold with having grown up in Winterfell and everything, but Storms End was a new cold that she had to grow accustomed to. The air was salty and biting but she liked it because it felt fresh and new. Gendry liked it because her cheeks always got red no matter the weather.

School hadn't been as hard as she was expecting it to be, but a large part in that was she had Gendry there to ease her nerves and even help her in the classes she thought she fell short in and in turn, she would help him.

They had always been that way, always helping one another, learning from each other, arguing day and night and growing more and more in love with the more time passed.

So yes, Storms End was absolutely good because Storms End had Gendry.

"You're good together." Jon says earnestly. His voice pulls her out of the memories made in Storms End with Gendry she had been reliving.

She just looks at Jon and feels her face growing hot, she doesn't know what to say. He's the only one she'd never really be able to avoid or hide anything from.

"Yeah?" She says quietly, nervously and Jon lets out a small laugh.

"Yeah."

* * *

She finds him by the window sill, watching the snows fall. She sits next to him and places her hand over his, intertwining their fingers.

"We should be leaving soon." She says by way of greeting and he nods in agreement.

"Can't wait to get back to our bed." He mumbles and she laughs.

"Me too."

He looks down at their hands interlocked with one another.

"I think I totally screwed up our plan."

"I think you totally did." Arya nods in agreement and he turns to her, a smile in his eyes and she thinks he doesn't feel all that bad about how bad he is at hiding how terribly in love with her he is.

"I can't help it, alright. Maybe if you didn't look so beautiful all the time or if I wasn't so helplessly in love with you, but too bad for you that you _do _look beautiful all the time and that I _am _helplessly in love with you." He holds his hands up defensively, his left hand still in hers and on full display for everyone to see.

They already know by the looks of it so she doesn't really care at this point.

She doesn't care that her mother is giving her that same cocky 'I told you so' look or that Rickon is glaring daggers at her while Shireen is giggling or that her father is smiling at them and Sansa is just shaking her head but clapping excitedly, or that Jon is smiling and Ygritte is clapping him on his back for knowing _something._

She cares a little that she has to witness Theon make some very suggestive and not at all discreet hand gestures at Robb because there are just some things a little sister shouldn't bear witness regarding her older brother and his best friend who he may or may not be sleeping with.

"I don't really see how that's too bad for me, I mean I love you and you love me. My super hot boyfriend is in love with me, boo hoo." She teases and he pulls her forward and after an entire night of wanting and waiting, he captures her lips with his own and it truly was well worth the wait.

It was even worth all the whistles and cheers she hears from all over the living room and she thinks she feels a flash go off and she swears if her mother took a picture of this she will absolutely be mortified but she'll maybe also get it framed.

They pull apart and she looks in his eyes and they're suddenly the only ones in the room,"I love you."

He kisses her one more time before he kisses her forehead, then her cheeks and then her nose,"I love you too."

She turns her head and immediately groans and throws her head back at her family and their varying faces of elation and amusement.

"Seven fucking hells. Would you all stop staring?"

**Author's Note:**

> Babies. I love them. 
> 
> Hope you enjoyed it :)
> 
> Peace and Love,
> 
> ohnoshefell.


End file.
